National ID, The Need for the ID System

Although it is not mandatory, citizens who will not acquire a National ID will have a hard time having business with both public and private entities. National ID will be a primary requirement when dealing with government transactions as well as a need for private entities, such as corporations.

A sample of the Philippine Nation ID. Image from Inquirer

“The requirement for doing business will be the National ID. It’s really more about accessing benefits. But if they don’t want to access benefits from the government, then they will not really need to have an ID,” says National Statistician Dr. Lisa Grace Bersales, of the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Although she also stressed in a Malacañang press briefing, that it is not a mandatory ID every Filipino citizen needs to have.

Image from the Philippine Star

The Philippine Identification System Act was signed by the President Rodrigo Duterte last Monday, August 6, and it shall be providing a singular ID that will have a centralized database of all citizen information.